Asama, Tibbits team up

COLDWATER – Asama Coldwater Manufacturing has teamed with Tibbits to give area students an opportunity to see Shakespeare the way it was intended—as a live performance.

Tibbits presents the Michigan Shakespeare Festival (MSF) production of "Romeo and Juliet" today at the opera house. Students from Coldwater High School, Bronson Junior-Senior High School, Franklin High School and Pansophia Academy will be attending. With ACM’s support, Tibbits is able to offer the production to the students at a discounted price.

For four seasons MSF has presented touring productions for area schools. The tours are an extension of the festival’s annual summer season of professional classical theatre.

According to MSF Artistic Director Janice L Blixt, "The goal of the tour is for high school students to see why we’re still doing these shows 400 years after their original writing." She adds, "While Shakespeare as literature is fascinating and important, seeing Shakespeare performed live is a completely different experience. These plays were meant to be heard, to be seen, and we want students to discover that Shakespeare is about love, fear, pain, anger, life and laughter and, yes, death."

MSF presents "Romeo and Juliet" in a combination of modern and period styles as it would have been presented by Shakespeare’s own company. Great attention is given to the combat choreography the style of which is classic Renaissance rapier/dagger. "Romeo and Juliet" is adapted and directed by Janice Blixt. The fights are choreographed by MSFs Resident Violence Designer, Artistic Associate David Blixt. He says the combat design runs "the fight-gambit from absurd playfulness to deadly cut and thrusts, from swashbuckling fun to real violence."

Following the performance students will have an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the performance of Shakespeare from company members. "Romeo and Juliet" is primarily a school production.